1. Field of the Invention
The current invention relates to graphics processing and, in particular, to a method and apparatus for rendering an object on a page. The current invention also relates to a computer program product including a computer readable medium having recorded thereon a computer program for rendering an object on a page.
2. Description of the Related Art
The printing process in modern operating systems, typically involves steps of invoking drawing functions, converting the drawing functions into a standardized format (e.g. PDF or XPS), and spooling the standardized format drawing functions to a printer driver. The printer driver may contain an interpreter which parses the standardized format drawing functions, and converts the standardized format drawing functions into drawing instructions that are accepted by a printer driver rendering engine. The printer driver rendering engine typically renders the drawing instructions to pixels, and sends the pixels to a printer which prints the pixels onto paper.
Some printers have limited rendering functionality. A printer driver used by such printers may contain an interpreter that parse the standardized format into certain printer-recognizable graphical objects and drawing instructions that are accepted by the printer. The printer driver sends the generated graphical objects and drawing instructions to the printer. The printer then renders the graphical objects and drawing instructions into pixels.
Conventional methods for converting graphical objects and drawing instructions parsed from the standardized format into limited, printer-supported graphical objects, typically include processes for translating any printer-compatible graphical objects and drawing instructions directly into a printer-recognizable format. Such methods typically also include processes for rendering any printer-incompatible graphical objects and drawing instructions into pixels. The conventional methods for converting graphical objects and drawing instructions into limited, printer-supported graphical objects may result in a large amount of image data being sent to the printer, especially when there is lots of overlap between printer-compatible objects and printer-incompatible objects. The large amount of image data often results in a slow printing speed.
Thus, a need clearly exists for a better and more efficient printing method that will result in a faster printing speed. printing process in modern operating systems, typically involves steps of invoking drawing functions, converting the drawing functions into a standardized format